Hydrographics – Water Transfer Printing Of Firearm Accessories

Heartbreaker from WeaponsRelated tricked out his AR-15 furniture like a wood paneled station wagon pimp:

I blogged about wood ar-15 furniture HERE and HERE in the past. Although this Hydro dipping is not as classy or as durable as real wood, it’s definitely less expensive.

His How To Video:

So many companies are coming out with hydro dipped graphics on guns now, but I didn’t know there was a company that made home kits until now. Heartbreaker used a kit from MyDipKit and it seems to have turned out well. They have a bunch of interesting graphics in their catalog, along with some pretty stupid looking ones. I’d like to get a Hi-Point and try out the $100 bills one, and possibly the carbon fiber kit. Funny thing is that the $100 price for the kit is almost the price of a brand new Hi-Point.

The FAQ doesn’t say anything about being able to remove the dip, so that kind of worries me if using it on an expensive firearm but i’m assuming solvent would make quick work of it.

Has anyone else done this? Did you like the results? Long term durability?

As for wood on firearms, I removed the plastic stock and foregrip on the rifle I had with wood, albeit ugly and aged it added the “rugged” look I wanted. Regardless of what I did that to rifle it was still rugged without the wood furniture!

so far i have dipped a lot of products, some safariland holsters and othe random ar-15 parts… it seems hit and miss with the kits. I have invested in a profesional hydro tank through TWN here in FL, i will be attending their traning in April. We plan to have some completed AR’s and other weapons done and ready for retail by June 2012. We are currently running some T&E on our kydex holsters and dipping.

so far i have dipped a lot of products, some safariland holsters and other random ar-15 parts… it seems hit and miss with the kits. I have invested in a profesional hydro tank through TWN here in FL, i will be attending their traning in April. We plan to have some completed AR’s and other weapons done and ready for retail by June 2012. We are currently running some T&E dipping on our kydex holsters.

I have dipped a few of mine and some friends guns, I get the film and activator off ebay and the primer, base coat and clear from HD or lowes. You come out much cheaper doing it that way. For $100 you can get alot more of everything. The finish holds up great, the film actually bonds with the basecoat when you dip it. I haven’t been able to remove it with anything short of heavy duty paint stripper. If you mess up dipping something, you just let it dry rough it with sandpaper basecoat it and dip again. And for starters, you will mess up alot. I haven’t dealt with cerakote so I can’t make a direct comparison. I’ve heard some people talk about this theirs chipping off, all I can say is you get what you put into it. if you just spray yoru gun and dip it, it might chip. But if you clean it, rough it up and prime it, it’s gonna be on there for the long haul.

The prices on the kits are rediculous. You can buy the film and chemical on eBay and get much more for the same price. It is tough to do it well at Home and takes practice. But I have managed to dip most of my old AR furniture in digital desert. Then I decided To go a different way. I’d still like to do a whole rifle in multicam one of these days.

You fan do it with just a big rubbermade tub and some warm water. Just buy the film off of eBay, the sellers their gave more patterns available than the “my dip kit” place, and just buy the film solvent chemical. I tried to go my own way and tried using different paint thinners and I bought a recipe for the chemical and still couldn’t get it to work worth a damn. Just buy the stuff premade of eBay. You can get a big roll of film, like 15 yards or something like that, waaay more than you will probably need, for about 50$. And the activator chemical is like 30 a quart of something. It’s way cheaper than the kits and the kits only come with like 15 feet of film.

As for durability, the film pattern is just an ink that sets into the base coat. So the finish is only as durable as the stuff you put it on. I used regular krylon from lowes or whatever and it worked all right. The major dipping shops use automotive paints and duracoat and cerakote.

Im about to start getting into dipping some things for my area. I was wondering if I could use like a self etching primer and what would be the best kind of base coats to use on the items i dip. I know that you have to use different colors for different look. Just wasnt sure if i could get a rattle can etching primer and some kind of rattle can base coat instead of using the small aerosol cans that comes with the kit, bc i bought a gallon of the activator off of ebay. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

If you look these guys up they offer kits that are bigger. This hydro dipping process is new to me, but when I seen these guys had a kit I bought it. These kits are a great way for a beginner to dip some items at home. I know Matt thinks the prices on the kits are expensive vs just buying the film and activator separately, but they don’t include instructions or any of the other supplies that a kit offers. For making a little money on the side its a great way to get started dipping xbox controllers and cases, and gun parts. If you going to do this long term then definitely get a compressor and spray guns.

If you look these guys up they offer kits that are bigger. This hydro dipping process is new to me, but when I seen these guys had a kit I bought it. These kits are a great way for a beginner to dip some items at home. I know Matt thinks the prices on the kits are expensive vs just buying the film and activator separately, but they don’t include instructions or any of the other supplies that a kit offers. For making a little money on the side its a great way to get started dipping xbox controllers and cases, and gun parts. If you going to do this long term then definitely get a compressor and spray guns.